The TBS person must prevent this. Now the long stay hangs above his head

“Okay, now we come to your personal circumstances.” The judges, having finished dealing with the facts, look intently at the suspect.

“You’ve been in TBS for quite some time, haven’t you?”

“28 years,” says the man.

“And it just doesn’t get treatment.”

“No, because I had just been transferred to the Rooyse Wissel and then…”. His left leg trembles restlessly under the table, as it always does when he fiercely defends himself against the right. Usually in an extension hearing in which it is decided whether his TBS measure will continue – countless times behind him, always lost. But now it is a criminal case. The more serious work. Charged with possession of child pornography.

“And then they found all those files on the department computer,” says the 53-year-old man, short black hair, quick tongue. “But I didn’t do that. There were several people in that department who had previously been convicted of child pornography, and if someone then pulls a bad prank…

A rotten area, that’s how he sees it. Performed by a fellow patient. Because he had finally felt some perspective again in the forensic psychiatric clinic in Oostrum, Limburg, his sixth clinic, after many years without treatment in other clinics. New place, new opportunities. But after just a week, an employee found child and animal pornography linked to his account on the computer in the shared living room. That was in October 2021.

He was immediately put ‘on orange’. A year of ward arrest: every step through the corridors of the clinic under supervision. And the clinic filed a report. Result: the Public Prosecution Service started a criminal investigation that lasted more than a year due to a lack of capacity. The Public Prosecution Service decided to prosecute. It took a long time until the trial, December 7, 2023. And in the meantime, he barely received treatment due to the mutual breach of trust. Barely any treatment again. For over two years.

“I haven’t found out who did that to me, that is also frustrating.” He speaks agitatedly. He was already that upon entering the multiple criminal chamber in Roermond, where the suspect apologized to the judges for his borrowed slippers and sweatpants, rolled up to knee height. Not his idea; the court security had not accepted the strings in his pants and shoes for security reasons. He was devastated. Add to this the built-up tension for this case and the result was that his lawyer, Abdel Ytsma, informed the judges in advance that he had doubts about whether this hearing could go ahead.

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He abused a girl, the parents continued to follow him, all his twenty-five years in TBS

“This case determines your future.” The chairman of the court explains the consequences to him again. “If you are found guilty…”.

The left leg is shaking.

His future, he knows, depends on this verdict. With a conviction for child pornography possession, his chance of returning to society seems to be gone forever. Then the TBS system will definitely lose all confidence in him and he will almost certainly receive an indication from the review committee later for a stay in a long-stay department. Then all those twenty-eight years in TBS would have been for nothing. And he is in the same condition as when he started. More frustrated, yes.

It was partly his fault. He’s not the easiest. The man – NRC has written about him before – was convicted in 1997 of kidnapping and sexually abusing a ten-year-old girl. He was given a TBS measure and started vigorously with work and therapy, but things kept getting stuck. Then there were incidents. He got into conflict with other patients and the staff, he once managed to escape a clinic, and alleged child pornography was found on him in the clinics before. Had he searched for terms like „barely legal” in “girls with braces”.

New diagnoses every time

The clinics were always unrelenting after such incidents. They sent him to the next one, where new practitioners made new diagnoses. From antisocial to narcissistic and pedosexual. Sixteen reports in total. And every time he got stuck again.

Until 2014, after seventeen years of TBS, autism was diagnosed for the first time, with a treatment plan that did work. Stability, the rapporteurs concluded, was what he needed. Because stress and overexertion led to frustration and delinquent behavior for him.

After that diagnosis, he improved and was even allowed to go on transmural leave – outside the clinic. But after one setback, the system was again unrelenting. Another clinic, another practitioner. He got stuck again.

TBS could not offer him exactly the stability he needed.

He was given one more chance – as a result of a healthcare conference – in the Rooyse Wissel.

“Sir, how long will you be in TBS?” The judge looks sternly at the suspect. “You knew that when you log in, that computer is your responsibility, right?”

“I was only there a week, in the previous clinic they had a completely different system.”

“According to the clinic, no other residents were involved…”

“Yes, if you don’t look beyond your nose.” The suspect jumps up. “The clinic never investigated that. Not even the police. It was corona time, there was nothing else to do. We often sat there and played games. Fifa, Formula 1. Sometimes I walked away from it for a while. And yes, if someone else…”

Logbook incomplete

The public prosecutor takes the floor. The suspect watches with excitement to see what demand is presented. But then….

“I ask for an acquittal.”

Acquittal? Lawyer Abdel Ytsma also looks surprised. Prepared for the toughest demand, he had sweated over his plea the day before.

“Too much doubt about the facts,” says the officer in a five-minute speech. Because in the logbook of the department computer, all registration data of all users appeared to be deleted that same day, except for that of the suspect himself. “That is striking.” According to the public prosecutor, it is therefore quite likely that another TBS officer wanted to deceive this newcomer to the department.

Lawyer Ytsma, also surprised, keeps it short: “The treatment must continue, let’s give him another chance.”

Afterwards, the lawyer is back in the hallway earlier than expected. Of course, Ytsma is pleased with the requested acquittal for his client. But he also finds it unpleasant. Couldn’t the Public Prosecution Service have thought of this earlier? “Now we are a few years further without treatment…”

The judge handed down the verdict on Thursday. It was acquitted.

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